The old hostel culture of camaraderie and socializing among students is gone.
Local station TV3 said dead bodies had been pulled from a hostel, and a tourist had been crushed to death in a van.
Over a decade ago I spent a year working at a "residence club" that I'll call Hampton House, a kind of misbegotten hybrid somewhere between a five-star hotel and a youth hostel.
My sojourn in the youth hostel was thankfully short.
After explaining why I was there, I was escorted at gunpoint to a hostel.
Options vary hugely, and you can find anything from the large and upscale Rydges Hotel to the basic YHA youth hostel.
With no guarantee that it would be working when I finally got there, I grudgingly decided that I had to economise and so ended up in a dormitory room at Samarkand's cheapest backpacker hostel.
If the hostel is closed, 500 people will find themselves on the street.
Plans for an overnight outing have to be shelved, it transpires, because the family hostel the group usually USES has no heating.
Back at the hostel, a new guest had arrived.
One girl even walked me to the door of the hostel upon my first arrival, and showed me where she lived in case I needed any help later.
Their landlord had broken a contract and asked for more rent, and they were presently moving as a family from hostel to hostel.
As soon as I checked in to a Buenos Aires youth hostel a few weeks ago, I went straight to the wall outlet to charge up my waning laptop and cellphone.
But with most rooms sleeping just two and a continental breakfast thrown in, the only giveaway signs that you're in a hostel will be the friendliness of your fellow guests and the bill.
And this is only one hostel.
Much relieved, we set off back to the hostel with wonderful Marco, who is now our impromptu tour guide.
As its name suggests, this particular hostel - ancient outside, modern in - is hidden behind high stone walls.
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